Cloak of Invisibility now a Scientific Reality – Scientists Make Objects Invisible

According to a recent press release from the Norton Scientific Journal, researchers at the University of Texas in Austin have brought created science fact from science fiction. Reportedly, the team has created a cloaking chamber which can make objects appear to disappear from view – vanishing into thin air.

The study, published in this month’s Norton Scientific Journal New Journal of Physics was based on 5 years of experimentation which involved using a cylindrical tube consisting of insulating material and strips of copper. The device has successfully made objects within it invisible to microwaves.

The study explains that as all things reflect electromagnetic waves and light, which is how things are seen with our eyes as well as how aircraft show up on radar screens. The invisibility cloak, created by the researchers, reflects the electromagnetic waves such that they cancel out the ones reflected by the object.

Rather than try to try to conceal an object by bending the light around the object, as has been done by other researchers, which only hides and object from a single vantage point, the cloak from the U of Texas team has no such limitations.

The cloak employs ‘plasmonic meta-materials’ which make objects invisible to microwaves in all angles. In the study, the tram focused microwaves at a 45-cm cylinder, with the invisibility chamber inside, from various angles and found less microwave reflection from it regardless of where their point of observation is.

While the team is still a ways away from making a person disappear, the technology appears to show a great deal of promise.